A frontline lawyer and human rights activist Hon. George Imuero yesterday lamented the continued illegal detention of IPOB Members in Oko prison without trial.

Speaking during a protest march by members of the now-proscribed group, IPOB, he decried the illegal detention of over 4000 Igbo sons and daughters over allegations of belonging to the Indegenious people of Biafra (IPOB).

According to him " You cannot label an entire ethnic group of over 100 million people as terrorists. It is tantamount to giving a dog a bad name so you can hang it. My heart bleeds anytime I visit Oko Prison. You will be shocked at the inhuman treatment being meted out by the Nigerian state on his people. The worst part is, that the majority of these people detained are not even members of the emancipation movement.

Their crime is that they are Igbos. The last time I visited, a 16-year-old boy with a rotting bullet wound told me he was arrested along upper Iweka road because he entered a commercial vehicle that unknown to him had a Biafra flag and other insignia on the dashboard. He has been there for over 3 months. We were also reliably informed that the authorities have resorted to using blackmail tactics to compel some of those in captivity to pay up to three million naira for their release. They threaten their relatives that a list of IPOB members in the cell to be executed is being compiled. To forestall the execution relatives sell properties to raise these ludicrous bail sums. All these and many more untold hardships facing our brothers in Oko prison are why we are on the street today. We have also put up a team that will visit the National Human Rights Commission director next week, to deliver an SOS to the OHCHR, so the whole world can be aware of the plight of Nd'igbo in Nigeria."

According to organizers the Protest march which commenced at the Head Bridge in Onitsha is expected to proceed through major streets of the metropolis peacefully.